Quotes by Gary Scelzi

“It went horrible on the first run,”

“Well, you better start showing it, thats all I can say.”

“John seems to be getting a little more cranky as this thing tightens up, ... I told him its his own fault. If he hadnt hired two such good drivers, we wouldnt be having this problem.”

“Hes a Jeff Gordon, a Tony Stewart, an exception to the rule, ... What he lacks in experience, he makes up for in focus. Hes that one in a million. I hope he snaps out of it pretty soon.”

“Mike has just been so good from the beginning. When I first started with Schumacher, thats who I wanted. I didnt know if I was going to get hired or not, but I told Don Schumacher that if I had a choice, I wanted to work with Mike Neff because hes such a level guy. He doesnt show his emotion a lot. Sometimes we have to beat him up to get him to beat on the hood and get me jacked up. All these great crew chiefs like my crew chief because he doesnt get excited. He doesnt brag, he doesnt get in anybodys face. He just wants to run with them.”

“Somebody is going to have to break away sooner or later, but anybody can throw anybody off here, and thats been the case over the years, but now theyre not playing favorites. Theyre mowing me off, theyre mowing John (Force) off, Robert (Hight) got sawed off the first round of Sonoma. You dont know whose going to do it; whos holding the loaded gun. Nobody can break away and get the clean air and get away from everybody. It could still happen, but right now one through four is right there, and even fifth place is right there. With six races left, the whole idea is if somebody jumps up with three in a row, now were the ones chasing the rabbit ... Theres no dominating anywhere.”

“I have chills. Ive been wound up all week.”

“(Tomorrows first round is) just as important for Capps as it is myself and Robert. (The Mopar/Oakley Dodge Stratus) has been the most consistent, the quickest, or right next to the quickest every single run. Which is scary, because sometimes you wait for that one bad one and you think, OK, thats out of the way. Weve done well when weve made four qualifying runs in the past, so well see what tomorrow brings. No one knows. Its gonna be a hell of a race tomorrow.”

“We just deal with the weather as it comes. There’s nothing we can do about it, so I’m not one to play much into it,” Scelzi said. “That’s all Mike Neff’s problem, it’s not my problem. My problem is to hit the gas on time and keep it in the groove, and hopefully the win lights will come on.”

“This just shows how deep the talent level in Funny Car is, ... No one is intimidated by John Force or the Schumacher cars. The field is deep.”